Reserve-feed acetylend-generator.



A. S. PHELPS 54 J. H. BIRCH. RESERVE FEED ACETYLENE GENERATOR.

APPLICATION FILED OCT. 12, I915- ]Patented Feb. 26, 1918.

ALGERNON S. PHELPS, OF CHICAGO, AND JAMES H. BIRCH, 0F GENEVA, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNORS 1'0 PHELPS MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A

CQRPORATIQN OF ILLINOIS.

RESERVE-FEED ACETYLENE-GENERATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Feb 2%, 19th..

Application filed October 12, 1915. Serial No. 55,516.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, ALGEBNON S. Pnnnrs, a citizen of the United States, residin at Chicago, in the county of Cook and tate of Illinois, and JAMES H. BIRCH, a citizen of the United States, residing at Geneva, in the county of Kane and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Reserve-Feed Acetylene-Generators, of which the following is a specification.

In the operation of acetylene generators which require to be recharged with carbid at intervals of several days or weeks, it not infrequently happens that the supply, of carbid in the magazine becomes exhausted during the evening or at other times when a re-charging is impracticable; and this not-' withstanding the general provision of gages and alarms to give warning of the depletion of the supply in the magazine, and being due to the fact that the generators are usually in charge of the householder who may become inattentive or who may not be present when an alarm is sounded.

in such circumstances it is desirable that provision be made for a temporary gas supply until the following day when the magazine can be ire-charged with car-bid. This has been proposed to be accomplished by the provision of an auxiliary carbid magazine, the supply of carbid in which is only drawn upon as a reserve in such an emergency to tide the generator over until the primary magazine can be replenished.

The object of our present invention is the provision in an actylene generator of an improved form of reserve feedwhich shall be most etficient in operation, simple in con struction, not liable to get out of order, and which will be wholly automatic and certain in its operation to meet the demands of service. 7

In order that the invention may be readily understood, preferred and modified embodiments of the same are set forth in the accompanying drawings and in the following detailed description based thereon. @bviously, however, the invention may be embodied in other and varied constructional terms, wherefore it is to be understood that the drawing and description are to be taken in an illustrative and not in an unnecessarily limiting sense.

In the drawing- Figure l is a vertical section through a cal-bid magazine of a generator taken on the line 11 of Fig. 2, showing the auxiliary or reserve magazine with its operating mechanism;

Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the mechanism shown in Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section through the auxiliary magazine taken on the line 3-3 of Fig. 2; and

Fig. 4 is a perspective view illustrating a similar device with a modified form o1 operating mechanism.

The illustration of the generator herein is confined to those parts directly pertinent to the operation of the invention.

In the drawing the reference numeral 11 designates the usual carbid magazine enveloped by the gas bell 12 which is of the rising and falling type. The carbid magazine has a discharge opening 13 which is controlled by the swinging feed shoe ll, pivoted at 15, counterweighted at 16 and connected at 17 with the end of an operating rod 18 which extends upwardly within the magazine into the path of the descending gas bell, the upper end of the rod adapted to be engaged by the top of the bell whereby the rod will be depressed upon the depletion of gas within the bell and will rock the feed shoe 1-1 so as to discharge the requisite amount of carbid from the magazine 11. The construction and operation of the parts thus far described are old and well known and of themselves form no part of the present invention.

Within the magazine 11 and preferably at one side thereof is mounted a reserve car-bid magazine 19 having an open top and also an open bottom, the bottom, however, having a valve member 20 pivoted at 21, counterweighted at 22 and adapted to swing to and from a position to open and close the bottom of the magazine. There is also arranged within the magazine a deflecting plate 23 by means of which the carbid within this reserve magazine is directed toward the opening above the valve 20. When the reserve carbid magazine 19 is empty, the valve 20 will be maintained in its closed position by its counterweight and also by means of a latch 24, the hook portion 25 of which engages under a projecting lip 26 of the valve. The latch 24 is held in position with its nose 25 underneath the valve by means of the counterweight 27, said latch being of bell crank construction .and fulcrumed at 28. From the counterweighted arm of the latch 24 depends a rod 29 with its lower end extending through the bottom of the main magazine to a point immediately above the counterweight 16 of the feed shoe.

The operation of the devic is as follows: Assuming both the main carbid magazinell and the reserve carbid magazine 19 to have been filled with carbid, and the main magazine to have been gradually depleted by the feeding of carbid therefrom until there is practically none left therein, after the supply of carbid within the magazine 11 is exhausted the swinging of the feed shoe 14 by the engagement of the descending gasometer hell with the upper end of the rod 18 will not result in the discharge of any more carbid and consequently there will be no generation of gas and the bell 12 will continue to descend. The descent of the bell 12 below its normal low level will cause the feed shoe to swing beyond its usual stroke and its counterweighted end 16 will thereupon engage the lower end of the descending rod 29, lifting the counterweighted arm of the latch 24- and causing the hook 25 to release the valve 20. The weight of the carbid within the reserve magazine 19 will cause the valve 20 to open in opposition to its counterweight 22 and the carbid within the reserve magazine will be discharged into the main magazine and'thencefiow into the space above the feed shoe and will be fed in the normal manner by means of the shoe little by little to maintain a supply of gas until the following day, when the main and reserve magazine can be recharged.

That form of construction shown in Fig. 4 of the drawings differs from that previously described by the omission of the depending rod 29 and the extension of the counterweighted arm 27 of the latch as 1ndicated. at 30, and the mounting upon the extremity of the arm 30 of an upwardly extending rod 31. This rod extends upwardly Within the magazine into the path of the gasometer bell. The rod 31 has its upper end disposed at a level slightly lower than the upper end of the operating rod 18 the result being that under normal operation of the generator the rod 18 only w ll be engaged by the descending hell, but 1f by reason of the failure of the supply of carbid in the main magazine 11 the actuation of the rod 18'fails to generate gas, the bell will continue to descend until it engages the upper end of the rod 31, when it will trip the latch 24 and cause the discharge of the car bid from the reserve magazine into the magazine, to be fed by the shoe under the influence of the operating rod 18 as before.

We claim:

1. In an acetylene generator, the combination with the gas bell, the main carbid magazine, and feed mechanism controlled by the movement of the bell to feed the car bid from said magazine, of a carbid reserve magazine of relatively small capacity within the main magazine and having a tilting bottom, a latch normally holding the bottom in place, and means actuated by the descent of the bell beyond its normal feeding level only to release the latch.

2. In an acetylene generator, the combina tion with the gas bell, the main carbid magazine, and feed mechanism controlled by the movement of the bell to feed the carbid from said magazine, of a carbid reserve magazine of relatively small capacity within the main magazine and having a tilting bottom, a latch normally holding the bottom in place, and a rod connected with the latch and engaged by the feeding mechanism when the bell descends beyond its normal feeding level only to release the latch.

3. In an acetylene generator, the combination with the gas bell, the carbid magazine having a discharge opening, and a feed shoe arranged to swing across said opening to feed the carbid from the magazine, of a carbid reserve magazine within the main magazine and having an open bottom controlled by a valve, a latch normally holding the valve closed, and means actuated by the swinging of the feed shoe beyond the limit of its normal feeding movement to release the latch and open the valve.

4. In an acetylene generator, the combination with the gas bell, the carbid magazine having a discharge opening, and a feed shoe arranged to swing across said opening under the control of the bell to feed the carbid from the magazine, of a carbid reserve magazine within the main magazine and having an open bottom controlled by a valve, a latch normally holding the valve closed, a rod connected to the latch and actuated by the swinging of the feed shoe beyond the limit of its normal feeding movement to release the latch and open the valve.

5. In an acetylene generator, the combination with the gas bell, the carbid magazine having a discharge opening, feed mechanism controlling the discharge of carbid through said opening, and an operating rod connected to the feed mechanism and extending upwardly into the path of the descending hell, of a ca1'bid reserve magazine disposed within the main magazine and having a discharge opening a valve controllin said opening, and a second operating ro connected to the valve and extending upwardly instance into the path of the descending bell, the upper end of the second rod being at a lower elevation than that of the first rod.

6. In an acetylene generator, the combination with the gas bell, the carbid magazine having a discharge opening, a feed shoe controlling the discharge of carbid from the opening, and an operating rod connected to the feed shoe and extending upwardly into the path of the discharging descending bell, the carbid reserve'magazine disposed within the main magazine and having a discharge opening in its bottom, a valve controlling said opening, a latch normally holding the valve closed, and a second operating rod connected to the latch and extending up- Wardly Within the magazine into the path of the descending bell, the upper end. of the second rod being at a lower elevation than that of the first rod.

7 The combination with an acetylene generator having a gas bell, of a pivoted plate mounted in the carbid hopper of the generator and adapted to retain a reserve portion of the carbid charged into the hopper after the main body of the carbid has een fed to the generation chamber, and means actuated by the gas bell under an abnormal-downward movement thereof for effecting the tilting of said plate under the weight of its load and delivering the reserve charge thereon to the generation chamber.

8. The combination with an acetylene generator having a gas bell, of apivoted plate mounted in the carbid hopper of the generator and adapted to retain a reserve portion of the carbid charged into the hopper after the main body of the carbid has been fed to the generat on chamber, means actuated by the gas-bell under an abnormal downward movement thereof for efiecting thetilting of said plate under the weight of its load and delivering the reserve charge thereon to the generation chamber, and means forautomatically restoringthe plate to horizontal position upon the subsequent rise of the gas hell.

9. The combination with an acetylene generator having a gas bell, of a pivoted plate mounted in the carbid' hopperof the generator and adapted to retain a reserve portion of the carbid charged into the hopper after the main-body of the carbid has been fed to the generation chamber, means actuated by the gas bell under an abnormal downward movement thereof for edecting the tilting of said plate under the wei ht of thereon to the generation chamber, and

a counterweight on said plate operating to automatically restore the latter to horizontal polslition upon the subsequent rise of the gas 10. The combination with an acetylene generator having agas .bell, of a pivoted. holder mounted in the carbid hopper of the generator and adapted to retain a reserve portion of the carbid charged int) the hopper after the main body of the carbid has been fed to the generation chamber, means for locking said holder in carbid-receivin position, and means actuated by the gas bel under an abnormal downward movement thereof for releasing said locking means.

11. The combination with an acetylene generator having a gas bell, of a pivoted holder mounted in the carbid hopper of the generator and adapted to retain a reserve portion of the carbid charged into the hopper after the main body of the carbid has been fed to the generation chamber, means for automatically locking said holder, upon its upward swinging movement, in carbidreceiving osition, and means actuated by the gas bel under an abnormal downward movement thereof for releasing said locking means.

12. The combination with an acetylene generator havin a gas bell, of a pivoted holder mounted ln'the carbid hopper of the generator and adapted to retain a reserve portion of the carbid charged into the hopper after the main body of the carbid has been fed to the generation chamber, means for automatically locking said holder, upon its upward swinging movement, in carbidreceiving position means actuated by the gas bell, under an abnormal downward movement thereof for releasing said locking means, and a counterweight on said holder operating to automatically restore the latter when empty to carbid-receiving position.

In witness whereof we have hereunto signed our names in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALGERNON S. PHELPS. JAMES H. BIRCH. Witnesses:

T. D. BUTLER, MARY O. Browne. 

